The document provides guidance on how to analyze works of literature by examining key elements like plot, characters, setting, point of view, themes and rhetorical devices. It advises the reader to carefully read the work multiple times, ask questions, annotate, and identify patterns to determine both the literal and figurative meaning. The analysis should then explain what the work means and how the author conveys that meaning through the use of various literary elements and techniques.

1. Literary Analysis
Mack Gipson, Jr.
Tutorial and Enrichment Center
Gayla S. Keesee
Education Specialist

2. Literature focuses on the search for
reasons, values, and interpretations in all
areas of human interest and experience.
Because literature presents us with more
than one possible meaning, interpreting
literature requires more care and attention
than does responding to an essay.

3. How to proceed
Read slowly and carefully.
Plan on reading the work several times.
Ask questions to establish the literal
meaning first; then work on
interpretation.
Annotate as you read.
Identify themes and patterns.

4. An analysis explains what
a work of literature means,
and how it means it.

5. Critical Thinking
and Reading
Responding to literature with a
critical temperament means always
being willing to analyze, interpret,
question, synthesize, and evaluate.

6. Critical Thinking
and Reading
ANALYZE
 What does the passage mean, literally?
INTERPRET:
 What does it mean figuratively?
 Are there symbolic overtones?
 Can it mean more than one thing?
 What passages in the text lead you to believe this
is a valid interpretation?

7. Critical Thinking
and Reading
QUESTION:
 What problems are suggested by the reading?
 What's confusing?
 If you had the author here, what would you ask?
 What philosophical question(s) does the reading
inspire?

8. Critical Thinking
and Reading
SYNTHESIZE:
 How does this reading compare or contrast what
you’ve read previously?
 How does it fit into your scheme, either
thematically or formally?

9. Critical Thinking
and Reading
EVALUATE:
 Is it a first rate piece of writing or fifth rate piece of
writing?
 What criteria do you use to establish this
judgment?
 If you are evaluating a poem, for instance, what
defines a first rate poem?
 How does this particular poem match up to that
standard?
 Can you point to the exact places in the text to
support your reading?

10. What is Literary Analysis?
It’s literary
It’s an analysis
It’s—
An Argument!
Uses evidence from the text
May also involve research on and
analysis of secondary sources

11. How is it “literary”?
Usually, a literary analysis will involve a
discussion of a text as writing, thus the
term literary, which means “having to do
with letters”
This will involve the use of certain
concepts that are very specifically
associated with literature

12. How to Analyze a Story
• Essential Elements of the Story
• Structure of the Story
• Rhetorical Elements
• Meaning of the Story

13. How to Analyze a Story
Essential Elements of the Story
 Plot:
Relationship and patterns of events
 Characters: people the author creates
 Including
the narrator of a story or the speaker
of a poem
 Setting: when and where the action happens
 Point of View: perspective or attitude of the
narrator or speaker
 Theme: main idea—what the work adds up to

14. Plot
Exposition: Introductory material giving setting,
tone, characters
Rising Action: series of complications leading up
to the climax
Conflict: Person vs…Person, Nature, Society,
Supernatural, Self
Crisis/Climax: Turning point in the conflict—
moment of highest interest and/or emotion
Falling Action: Events after the climax which
close the story.
Resolution (Denouement): Concludes the action

15. Plot Sequence
Crisis/Climax
Rising Falling
Action Action
Complications
leading to
Conflict(s) Resolution
Introduction

16. Characterization
Round
Protagonist Three-dimensional personality
Main character
Flat
Antagonist Only one or two striking
Character or force qualities—all bad or all good
that opposes the
main character
Dynamic
Grows and progress to a
Foil higher level of understanding
Character that
provides a contrast to
Static
the protagonist Remain unchanged throughout
the story

17. Point of View
First Person
 Narrator is a character within the story—reveals own
thoughts and feelings but not those of others
Third Person
 Objective: narrator outside the story acts as a reporter
—cannot tell what characters are thinking
 Limited: narrator outside the story but can see into the
mind of one of the characters
 Omniscient: narrator is all-knowing outsider who can
enter the mind of more than one character.

18. Setting
Time period Instrumental in
Geographical location establishing mood
Historical and cultural May symbolizes the
context emotional state of
 Social characters
 Political Impact on
 Spiritual characters’
motivations and
options

19. Theme
Main idea or underlying meaning of the
literary work.
 What the author wants the reader to
understand about the subject
 In fables, this may also be the moral of the
story

20. Common Themes in
Literature
Questions, issues or Conflicts:
problems: what is freedom vs. restraint,
right or wrong; good poverty vs. wealth
or bad; worthwhile
or unimportant Common topics:
self-realization,
Abstract ideas: love, mortality, fall from
death, honor innocence, search for
the meaning of life.

21. How to Analyze a Story
Structure of the Story: design or
form of the completed action
 May philosophically mirror the author’s
intentions
 How the author uses the elements of the
story to reveal his/her theme
 Look for repeated elements in action,
gestures, dialogue, description as well as
shifts in direction, focus, time, place, etc.

22. How to Analyze a Story
Rhetorical Elements: Identify the
author’s use and explain their importance
 Foreshadowing
 Use of hints or clues to suggest event that will
occur later in the story
 Builds suspense—means of making the narrative
more believable
 Tone
 Author’s attitude—stated or implied—toward the
subject
 Revealed through word choice and details

23. Rhetorical Elements
Mood
 Climate of feeling in a literary work
 Choice of setting, objects, details, images,
words
Symbolism
 Person,
place, object which stand for larger
and more abstract ideas
 American flag = freedom
 Dove = peace

24. Rhetorical Elements
Irony: contrast between what is
expected or what appears to be and
what actually is
 Verbal Irony—contrast between what is
said and what is actually meant
 Irony of Situation—an event that is the
opposite of what is expected or intended
 Dramatic Irony—Audience or reader knows
more than the characters know

25. Rhetorical Elements
Figurative Language: language that
goes beyond the literal meaning of
words
Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Oxymoron
Hyperbole

26. How to Analyze a Story
Meaning of the Story (Interpretation)
 Identify the theme(s) and how the author
announces it.
 Explain how the story elements contribute to
the theme.
 Identify contextual elements (allusions,
symbols, other devices) that point beyond
the story to the author’s life/experience,
history or to other writings.

27. How do I support a
thesis statement?
Examples from the text
 Direct
quotations
 Summaries of scenes/action
 Paraphrases
Other critics’ opinions
Historical and social context

28. Supporting Your Thesis
The Text (Primary Source)
 As you write, consistently refer to the text
to support your purpose.
 Use the author’s own words—quotes.
 No right or wrong interpretation as long as
you can support it from the text.
Secondary Sources
 Literary Criticism